September 2014
Wellness, Productivity, & You!
NYS Employee Assistance
Program
www.worklife.ny.gov/eap
Trust in the Workplace:
You Have One Second
Assertiveness:
Learn to Say
“Yes”
You don’t have three
seconds to make a
good first impression.
You only have one! A
study published
recently in the
Journal of
Neuroscience
found that the human brain decides whether a person is
trustworthy or not almost instantly. To thwart this unfair
biological response and be considered trustworthy, confident,
relaxed, and knowledgeable, use a firm handshake, greet
others with a smile, and make eye contact. Listen slightly
more than you speak, and always practice the most important
piece of advice to instill trustworthiness: Be genuine—be
yourself.
? ?
Learning to say “no” is a
common assertiveness skill,
but also learning to say “yes”
and asserting yourself is key to
taking advantage of opportunities
and experiences you want in your life. Assertiveness is about
being aware of your needs and aligning your thinking to match
them. For example, is work-family balance an important value
to you, but you’re always too busy to achieve it? If yes, use
assertiveness to grab opportunities for fitting in a family picnic,
an evening family card game, or a day together with your family
at a farmer’s market. It’s easy to avoid the stress of juggling
priorities by simply not doing things like this, but assertiveness
can help you behave more opportunistically so things you truly
value don’t pass you by, leaving you to regret later what you
didn’t do.
Source: www. Psych.nyu.edu [Search: 10574]
Could Sunlight
Be the Secret?
Would You Make
a Good Boss?
More sunlight in your
daily routine may improve
your mood, cause you to be
more engaging at work, produce clearer
thinking, and make you more positive and
productive. Cornell University researchers found that acutecare nurses exposed to more sunlight at work were happier,
laughed more, had lower blood pressure, and were more
effective in caring for patients than those who were not
exposed to as much sunlight. For people with high-stress
jobs, communication and laughter are important coping
mechanisms and contribute to better work performance. Seek
the sun! Researchers believe the benefits of sunlight will
accrue to employees in any job setting.
Don’t shy away from becoming a
supervisor because you don’t possess
every required skill. Are you good at
explaining things to new coworkers
or those learning something new?
Do you have good ideas and a way
of expressing them in a convincing manner?
Do you stay unruffled by politics and frustrations of a
bureaucracy? Are you motivated to learn new skills that give
you the business acumen necessary to be effective in a
managerial role (technology, finance, etc.)? If you believe in
your organization’s purpose and don’t fear accountability, and
you naturally engage with others and communicate well, then
seize your next opportunity to become a supervisor!
Source: www.northwestern.edu [Search: “natural light”]
Information in FrontLine Employee is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to replace the counsel or advice of a qualified health or legal professional. For further help, questions, or referral to community
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